Editor Wanted: Well we are still looking for an editor of this newsletter, so I have put together this edition Ross Stenhouse. I don t want to be the pro-tem editor forever so if you can help either in the area of news or being the editor, please contact me president@qvag.org or Liz Finlay Secretary@qvag.org Landmark Event Watts Bridge Gathering of Eagles Last Weekend in August- Every Year In the past QVAG/AFM on the last weekend in August established and conducted about twenty annual Festival of Flight events. Festival of Flight well and truly established Watts Bridge on the aviation circuit and provided a Feature Event Eastern Australia-wide for vintage and warbird owners, pilots and enthusiasts to attend. The role of conducting that event has now fallen on the shoulders of others; however QVAG will continue to have a strong presence at the event. I don t think I am skiting by claiming that the numbers of vintage and warbird aircraft attending the fly-in are the feature that make this fly-in a not-to-be-missed event. QVAG/AFM s new role is the running of the QVAG Café at the Gathering of Eagles. It place to meet with friends, met new people, buy refreshments and to have a place to sit down hand have a chat in shade and comfort. If we are to continue build support for the flying of vintage and warbird aeroplanes we need to attract more young people to our branch of aviation. Grass Roots Fly-ins There is a lot of fun to be had at smaller fly-ins: they can be more personal and it s easier for people to get to know each other over a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit, especially if you didn t know the other party very well. It s a great way for people to get to know the people who fly vintage and warbird aeroplanes. In the past I have organised many a fly-in and often I have fell into the trap of judging the success of the fly-in by the number of aircraft in attendance rather than on how many members communicated with the others attending the fly-in. In a way QVAG/AFM has been forced into running smaller fly-ins because we no longer have the human resources to organise a big event. However when scheduling the year s calendar of events it became obvious that there is now quite a number of established large fly-ins and that QVAG/AFM doesn t need to fill that role any longer. What is needed is a series of grass root fly-ins at various airfields. We want to encourage members to support these fly-ins by helping in the running of them when they are at your local airfield. We are in the process of planning a grass roots fly-in at Caboolture hopefully in July. We have a fly-away planned at Kingaroy in September and maybe later in the year we can have a fly-in at Murwillumbah. The old timers amongst you will recognise that Murwillumbah used to be the major annual venue for QVAG fly-ins. These used to be hosted by the Challinor Brothers in the Mothcair hangar. Murwillumbah would make a great venue for a smaller grass roots fly-in and would provide the
opportunity for members in Northern NSW to attend. QVAG hasn t staged any events at Murwillumbah for years. The basic format of a grass roots fly-in is that it is targeted at the local aviation community, both members and non-members. The fly-in will run for about four hours (say 0900 to 1300 hours) and light refreshments will be provided (at a small cost or by donation). The idea is that a shaded area will be provided as will a table for the refreshments and plenty of chairs for attendees to sit upon and have a chat with others be they visitors, prospective members of simply members whose company they enjoy. The photos below: These are from one of the last QVAG fly-ins at Murwillumbah held in the 1980 s. It s interesting to see the number of Austers that used to attend. No longer do we see such numbers at Fly-ins.
Report on the Kilcoy Fly-in Kilcoy is a small country airfield situated on the shores of Lake Somerset. It is a very picturesque place and the hope to quite a few vintage aeroplanes. The airfield is run by the South East Queensland Sports Aero Club. I think it s fair to say that those who attended came away happy that they went. It was a most enjoyable friendly fly-in with sufficient vintage aircraft in attendance to rate the whole event as a success. Photo Below: Member Bill Finlen made his debut in his newly acquired DH Leopard Moth VH-UUL. This aircraft is new to the SE Queensland/Northern NSW area and a very welcome edition. Photo left: Very long standing member Noel Branch having a chat to member Sam O Shea. The news is that at long last Noel has taken steps to get his Tiger Moth VH-BAV back in the air. Sam and his wife Dee made the long trip from Bundaberg to Kilcoy to attend and should be commended for making such a great effort. Member Bill Finlen won the Longest distance flown to flyin in acknowledgement for flying from Boonah to attend. OK it s not a huge distance but still it s a good couple of hours there and back! Well Done Bill!
Friendly Chatting certainly was the tone of the day and Jan Stenhouse s chocolate slice went down very well with a number of people seeking the recipe. Great tasting and certain to put a bulge in the waistline I ate three! Photo Above: The aircraft line-up at the fly-in Included amongst the aircraft in attendance was the CT4 of member Ron Dunn and the Cessna C170 of member Peter Biddle. Photo Above: Fleet Biplane belonging to Mal Shipton and is based at Kilcoy. The Fleet proved difficult to start and so the Fleet passenger had to fly in the substitute aircraft above. I think I would prefer a flight in the fleet but the C140 is still a great little aeroplane.
Photo above: The beautiful Cessna C195 VH-KES belonging to Dion Pastars. The Cessna is a local to Kilcoy and hopefully we can recruit Dion to the QVAG/AFM fold. Dion not only attended our fly-in but was taking some visitors from England for a scenic flight about Lake Somerset. Photo Below: Cessna C140 VH-ONO belonging to Mal Shipton. VH-ÓNO is based at Kilcoy
Photo Above: Piper Colt VH-DGH belongs to Doug Muir and based at Kilcoy. Photo Above: QVAG Membership Officer and Committee member Jan Stenhouse explains a point to Pamela Branch (Noel Branch s Mom) together with associate member Dee O Shea.
TAVAS The Australian Vintage Aviation Society QVAG/AFM and TAVAS have many reasons to cooperate together; a major similarity is that both organisations are committed to the flying of old aeroplanes and that they are based at Queensland Airfields QVAG/AFM at Watts Bridge and TAVAS at Caboolture. TAVAS specialises in the very early aviation years and has one of its objectives To gather actual airworthy aircraft or produce near replicas of aviation past (especially as it pertained to Australia) and present them in a way that has never been seen before on these shores, in the form of an interactive flying museum. Also in common with QVAG/AFM, TAVAS recognises that the actual skills, construction techniques and tooling to construct aircraft from prior to about 1950 has been lost or is at risk of being lost. The same applies to many of the original plans or construction drawings. Thus many of the individuals who endeavour to rebuild and operate (vintage aeroplanes in QVAG/AFM s case or antique aircraft and flying reproductions in TAVAS s case) have had to learn a great deal of what was once common knowledge. LAME s with current knowledge and skills in our area of aviation are becoming very scarce. Both groups members have invested a great deal of time, money and effort into studying and coming up with plans and building techniques. They are committed to older aircraft types. It makes sense that sense that both organisations have closer relations and that members from each organisation support the other organisations events and fly-ins. On Sunday 24 th April, QVAG will have a stall at the TAVAS Great Vintage Fly-In we ask members and supporters to attend this event and help make it a success for TAVAS. The URL to TAVAS web site is : http://www.tavas.com.au/ it s a great web site and worth a browse. QVAG/AFM s Web Ste and Facebook Page QVAG/AFM has a web site its URL is http://www.qvag.org/ We have changed our web hosting provider and thus increased its speed and availability. Of particular interest to members will be the events page: http://www.qvag.org/events.html QVAG/AFM also has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/queensland-vintage-aeroplane- Group-Inc-160487164099644/?fref=ts Facebook being an interactive social media resource is much easier to update than the web site and thus tends to get things posted there that don t make it to out web site. We recognise that some members do not use Facebook and we hope that this newsletter keeps them informed. It contains information that that is neither on Facebook nor the QVAG/AFM web site.
The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the Queensland Vintage Aeroplane Group/Australian Flying Museum Inc. or its members.